


A Puppet without Strings

by PhantasmaDormi



Series: Robin is not okay (and that's alright) [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: (Set during the Plegia war), Gen, Introspection, POV Second Person, Robin angst, Robin contemplating who they are, Robin wondering what will become of them after the war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21983065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantasmaDormi/pseuds/PhantasmaDormi
Summary: You’re resting between battles when it hits you: all you’ve ever known is war.
Series: Robin is not okay (and that's alright) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572874
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	A Puppet without Strings

**Author's Note:**

> Set during the war with Plegia before the scene with Emmeryn.

You’re resting between battles when it hits you: all you’ve ever known is war.

The first day you woke up was to a fight with bandits. Your tactical prowess was what made you stand out the most that day. Then, after that, it was a battle to get back to the capital, between risen and more bandits. And then the war with Plegia loomed over you.

It’s the most defining feature of your memories. The war with Plegia, that is. And the Shepherds.

That’s what you, now, isn’t it? A Shepherd. Tending to a scared and abused flock of sheep all looking to you to save the Exalt. They don’t know you for anything other than fighting, if they even know you.

You don’t really know yourself outside of battle, either. In the midst of a fight you are Robin, tactician to the Shepherds and fierce mage and swordsman. Outside of it? You don’t remember anymore.

What are you when there isn’t a fight? Robin, the amnesiac? Robin, the stowaway of the Shepherds? The pity case of the Exalt’s brother? The more you wonder the worse the answers get.

A friend. You hope. You want to be a friend to these people, for them to see you in the same light as you see them. Allies, at least. Someone you trust to have your back and theirs in turn. But do the others trust you outside of battle? Do they see you in camp and think of you fondly? Do they see you sitting amongst the crowd and know that you belong?

Do you belong?

That is the hardest question. The answer, in the grand scheme of everything, is no. You don’t.

You don’t have a history anymore, a past, a family. Maybe you did, once. Maybe you still do. But you’ve been lost from it, stolen away. Rather, it was stolen from you. What if, one day, it came back? What then? If the call of the past came to you, what would you choose? The past or the present?

The present, you hope. What good is something you can’t remember? What would it say about you if you scorned the good will offered to you in your darkest hour?

The hurt on Chrom’s face would cut deep, you think.

The worst question, however, is not what are you outside of battle. It’s what you will be after the war. After Ylisse or- god forbid- Plegia wins. Will you be a known ally and valued member? Will you be an outsider, tolerated at best?

Or will you be thrown away like a broken weapon? Used until it was worn down and dull, the blade broken and shattered. Who needs a tactician outside of battle? Who would value a person with no past and no family to claim?

In this world where lineage holds a large sway in how your life plays out, where does the one who woke in a field with nothing sit?

You hope, in those blurry, unclear moments where you can’t tell who you are, that you’ll still be someone after this is all over.


End file.
